Not Like Brothers
by Oni To Neko
Summary: “I love you, Iggy.” He said that, but Iggy wondered if he really understood it. IGGYXGAZZY! Please don't read just to tell me you hate the pairing or something D: Rated T for gayness and possible pedophilia. Though it's not 'cause they're both minors


**I do not own Maximum Ride in any way shape or form. James Patterson is my hero. I wish her were MY dad. **

**This fanfic is Igzzy! IGGYXGAZZY! If you don't like this pairing, please don't read it and then comment/review telling me I'm sick and disgusting and probably a pedo. I'm already quite aware.**

**However, you can red it and tell me "omg this is like, the best pairing ever" –shot-**

**Ahem –bullet pops out of skull- with no further ado, the fanfic.**

The Gasman's diamond-blue eyes set on the figure flying towards him. He could spot Iggy's strawberry-blonde hair out from any crowd, and from any scenery. In this case, over a woody canyon, towards the back side of a cliff, maybe 2 miles away from the rest of the flock.

Iggy's shirt blew up a bit, as he landed in front of his young flock-mate and pulled in his wings. Even without sight, he could pinpoint Gazzy just from the sound of his breath, or his teeth chattering in the wind, and sometimes, when it was quiet enough, from the beat of his little bird-kid heart.

"What is it?" Iggy asked, as his ran a hand through his hair to reshape it after the wind had shuffled it.

Gazzy looked back and forth sternly, "Is anyone around?" he asked quietly, as if someone was in hearing distance.

"No. I already scanned the whole area." Iggy answered. He of course meant with his excellent hearing, and not his non-existent sight.

"Okay." Gazzy said, "Good." Then with a hop and a short flap of his wings, leapt up and wrapped his arms around Iggy's neck and pressed their lips together.

Iggy made no initial response, other then to hold Gazzy up by the waist so he wasn't hanging from his neck, and once Gazzy was, Iggy tilted his head slightly and kissed his little friend back.

This wasn't the first time they kissed, in fact, Iggy couldn't remember how or when it had started, but he soon found that Gazzy was more to him then just a "flock mate". He loved Gazzy. Not like he would love a brother, but how Fang loved Max.

He remembered one night he had woken up while Fang was on watch duty. He could hear Max sitting with him at the entrance of the cave they had crashed in for the night. He could hear every mumble they whispered to each other, and every kiss they shared. He had felt embarrassed listening, but couldn't sleep until Max had left to rest her head.

Gazzy pushed away from Iggy and bumped noses with him in the process. He looked Iggy in the eyes, a habit he couldn't shake, even if Iggy couldn't really look back. "What's up? You thinking about something?" he asked, and wrapped his legs around Iggy's waist to hold himself up.

Iggy groaned a bit, trying to think of an excuse. He didn't want to have Gazzy eavesdropping on the couple the way he had. "Nothing… Important."

"Yeah right." Gazzy groaned, "you just don't wanna tell me because I'm just a kid."

"Or because you stink." Iggy joked. Gazzy laughed and a big smile smeared across his face. He wrapped his arms around Iggy and hugged him tight.

"I love you, Iggy."

He said that, but Iggy wondered if he really understood it.

"Where have you and Gazzy been going off to lately?"

Iggy turned his head back, to look back to the dark haired bird-kid addressing him. "Nowhere." He told Fang, and hung his legs off over the side of the cliff.

Iggy was on lookout, it was probably past midnight, and he thought everyone else was asleep, but Fang had appeared out of nowhere, like usual, and started pestering him.

"Gazzy's just a kid you know. You don't want to get weird ideas into his head at that age." Fang told him, it sounded almost like a lecture.

Weird ideas? Did Fang already know? Iggy looked back and acted clueless, "What are you talking about, Fang? What kind of ideas do you think I'd put 'in his head?'"

Fang sighed. He walked over and sat down next to Iggy, scanned the area to make sure no one was in earshot.

"Look, I know it's kind of lonely. And we're at that age and all. But… if you have to you know… jerk off. Don't take Gazzy. He's too young for that stuff."

"_Jerk off?!" Is that what he thinks?!_ Iggy was a bit disgusted. "What the hell, Fang?! You sound like you're trying to be my dad or something! It's totally not that. Now go to bed!" he snarled, and turned away from Fang entirely, unfurling his wings so Fang couldn't get closer.

Fang sighed, mumbled something that Iggy didn't bother to catch, and then slinked back into the cave as quietly as he had exited.

Iggy was still on watch an hour later. What Fang had told him was still echoing in his head. He had been wrong about what the two of them had been doing, but he was right about one thing. The Gasman was just a kid.

Gazzy said he loved him, but he was probably too young to even understand what he was saying. Gazzy could have loved Iggy like a brother. The same way he loved Angel, his little sister.

But brothers didn't kiss. Brothers didn't hold each other the way he wanted to hold Gazzy. Brothers didn't think about each other every waking moment.

Iggy remembered holding Gazzy earlier that day. He weighed so little, maybe half as much as Iggy. He was eight years old, almost half his age, and he was about half his height too. Gazzy was so small in so many ways. He was much to small to understand what either of them thought they were feeling.

Iggy pulled up his knees and rested his head in them. He sighed heavily, and thought he was going to start tearing up, when he heard a voice behind him.

"But he does understand."

Iggy didn't need to turn his head to recognize the voice of "sweet little Angel"—the mind reader.

"You don't know what you're talking about Angel. Go back to bed." He told her, without bothering to listen to a word.

"But I know aaaall about it." Angel said deviously and crouched down beside him. "About how much you and Gazzy loooove each other~"

Iggy spun around and nearly shouted, "H-How—"

"Oh c'mon. Gazzy's head is like an open book." She said, and shook her head a bit. "Besides, you've been thinking so loudly you woke me up."

"…sorry." Iggy mumbled, and turned his head away, a bit embarrassed.

"But you're wrong. My brother really does love you." Angel told him. Iggy turned to question her, but she hopped to her feet and continued. "He may be small, but he's my big brother, and he's got a big heart--Bigger then his wingspan; Bigger then _your_ wingspan; Bigger then all six of our wingspans combined." She stretched he arms out to illustrate, but then pulled them back when she remembered her audience couldn't see.

"And that's how big his love for you is too." Angel smiled coyly.

Iggy was left a little speechless. He knew Nudge was a talkative little drama queen, but he didn't realize Angel had a little drama princess in her too. He sat his chin down in his knees again, and rocked it back and forth, thinking over what she said.

Little Angel giggled—her work here was done. "I better go back to sleep before Max wakes up. Her shift starts in about thirty minutes." She reminded him, then tiptoed back into the cave.

Iggy stared silently out to the stars he dreamed of seeing.

The sun was just barely rising when Iggy awoke. He peered over to the entrance of the cave: Max had fallen asleep during her watch shift. Some leader she was. But he knew how sensitive her ears were, so he knew he had to be quiet. As quiet as Fang.

He tiptoed across the cave to The Gasman, and shook the little blonde boy softly. Gazzy's sleepy eyes barely creased open to look at him. Iggy put a finger to the little guy's lips before he could speak.

Iggy carried Gazzy over to the cave entrance to keep his clumsy child feet from tripping and causing a disturbance, then silently lifted off, and flew to their hiding place from the day before.

Iggy landed, and sat down, laying the sleepy Gasman in his lap.

"What is it, Iggy?" Gazzy asked sheepishly, batting his big eyes halfway open.

"Nothing. I just wanted to see you is all." Iggy said, and ran a hand over Gazzy's naturally messy hair. Gazzy smiled softly, and snuggled his head against Iggy's stomach, then quickly drifted back to sleep.

_Better think of an excuse. FAST!_

Iggy leapt awake at the sound of Angel's voice in his head. Gazzy must have heard it too, as he had leapt to his knees and was looking around wildly for his little sister.

Crap. Iggy had meant to be back at the cave before the others woke up, but he had drifted off to sleep with Gazzy, and now it was too late. The five other bird kids were already within eyesight. He _did_ need an excuse. But he just didn't have one.

"What were you guys thinking, leaving by yourselves? What if something happened?!" Max was the first to chime in.

Angel already looked worried. Fang was giving Iggy a "what did I tell you?" glare, which was obviously useless in this situation.

"W-we weren't by ourselves! We were with each other. Iggy was with me and I was with Iggy!" Gazzy started spewing out words to cover their tracks. Though it so far wasn't very helpful.

"You know that's not what she means." Said Fang. "Why did you guys leave without waking any of us up? What did you have to do that just included you two."

"Nothing! We just… we tired of the cave… and…" Gazzy looked at Iggy with a worried face he couldn't read, but could feel. Iggy was being awfully quiet. Gazzy looked to Angel, he could tell by her expression she was going to butt in with something, but he was worried she'd say something they'd all regret.

Gazzy tried again. "We just—"

"We just wanted to be together." Iggy finally spoke up.

Nudge took this as a chance to chime in. "But you guys are always together. You fly right next to each other, you tell jokes together, play pranks on each other, make disgusting bodily—"

"We didn't want to be with you guys, just me and Iggy… because… 'cause…"

"'Cause I'm in love with Gazzy. Okay?!" Iggy interrupted, practically shouting, and pulled Gazzy close. Gazzy face glowed a bit red.

"And I love Iggy too!" he tried to shout, but seemed too embarrassed.

Nudge covered her mouth shut for once and blushed with nothing more then a little squeak.

"You guys can't be _in love _with each other!" Max spouted, apparently not buying the excuse, despite the clear blush over both of the boys' faces. "You're both bo—"

"Both boys?!" Angel interrupted, flying in between Max and the two blonde boys on the cliff. "So what?! You and Fang are both weird bird kids. Total and Akila are both dogs. Why can't two _boys_ be in love too?" she argued.

"You know that's not what I mean, Sweety." Max said to Angel, trying to calm Angel and herself down at the same time.

"It is too! Gazzy and Iggy are no different then you and Fang. They've always loved each other." Angel snarled again, putting on her spoiled brat demeanor.

"You _knew_ about this?" Fang asked her.

Angel opened her mouth and shut it again and looked away, breaking her furious eye contact. "You know me… I hear things. And feel things. And when those two run away together, even when they're miles away, I can still feel them. Feel their love. It's the same as what I feel from you and Fang…"

Silence set through the group, no one looked at each other, except Nudge, who seemed to want to say something, but couldn't find eye contact with anyone to listen to her.

"Um…" Nudge started, trying to bring attention before she opened her chatterbox, "I… I think it's pretty sweet. I mean, these two do _everything_ together. They play pranks and fly and…" Everyone was now staring at her with glazed expressions, hoping she would get to the point. "Um… what I mean to say is… Why not you know, love together too? It's like sharing cookies, but your heart instead. Except you probably don't like, break them in half, because that would be the opposite of love."

Max sighed and smiled. "Fine. You guys have me convinced. I won't bother you anymore…" she said, then turned to Iggy and Gazzy. The latter had another huge smile smeared across his face. "But no more running off without telling anyone. If something happened, we'd have no idea where you went off to. Maybe we'll try to get some walky-talkies or something. I don't know. This is too much for this early in the morning. I'm gonna sleep for a few more hours… " Max's voice trailed off and she flew away. Fang followed her without so much as a look back to Iggy or Gazzy, and Nudge giggled a bit and followed too. Angel left last, after sending a thumbs up Gazzy's way, matched by a wink from her brother.

Once the rest of the flock was out of view again, the two boys stayed quiet, then blushed, and then broke out into laughter. They bonked head s couple times, which only heighten the laughter, then after they caught their breath, tapped their noses together before lightly pecking at each other's lips.

END

EXTRA

A couple days later, Iggy was basking in a tree in the sunlight when he heard a flutter below him. Nudge popped up over the branch and hung her arms over it. She stared at him silently.

"…If you want to say something, just say it. I can feel your eyes drilling into my skull." Iggy growled.

"Ah… ummm…" Nudge searched for her words. "You know you two can't have kids, right?"

"Whaaa---!!" Iggy shouted fell from the branch. "What the heck, Nudge?!"

**o__________________o**

**well?**

**Was it any good?**

**I just want to say that I wrote this entire fic between 10pm - 12 am when I couldn't sleep. Except when I say "wrote", I actually just thought of it. Word for word. Quote for quote.**

**I typed it from 12 – 2, then woke up at 7 the next morning. (or at least I hope to. It's actually 2 am right now)**

**I'm terribly sorry if anyone's totally OoC. It was 12 am. Seriously. **

**I DON'T KNOW WHERE TOTAL IIIIIS!!!**

**This is just how it played out in my head. For the exception of when Angel mentioned him, he just didn't appear. I don't know why. I love that dog though.**

**So anyway. This is my favorite pairing of the Max Fandom. I obviously don't mind FangxMax either, but all my fics in my head with them are so angsty, I'd rather blow up my computer then type them.**

**So. Um. If you enjoyed. Review/Comment, mattering where you read this.**

**And thanks!**

**Btw, this is a total one shot. Don't ask me to continue it. I won't.**


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